In 1864, Gen. Grant’s campaign to capture Richmond and destroy Lee’s Army of North Virginia ran into a brick wall at Petersburg. Both sides dug in and if you think trench warfare began in WWI, think again. There was even a no man’s land between the front lines. In June, Lt. Col. Pleasant came up with an idea to break the stalemate. His Pennsylvania regiment had plenty of coal miners who could dig a tunnel under the Confederate line and blow a hole in it. The commander of his corps was Ambrose Burnside. Burnside liked the idea and brought it to the commanding general of the Army of the Potomac Gen. Meade and the Union commander in chief Grant. They didn’t think much of the plan, but what the heck, try it. The effort was given little support, but the miners managed to dig a 500 feet long tunnel and then two side trenches to form a T. 320 kegs of gunpowder (equivalent to 4 tons) were placed in the side tunnels. Burnside’s plan was for two brigades of Colored Troops to attack each side of the crater. They were trained for this. It was believed that behind the trench line was open ground and the Union could make a rush to Petersburg. The day before the assault, Meade suddenly decided to nix the use of the black troops because it would be bad PR if the attack was unsuccessful and many were killed. He also just didn’t think the blacks were good enough. He ordered Burnside to switch to white soldiers. He drew straws and assigned the attack to the division of Gen. James Ledlie, a notorious alcoholic. Ledlie gave little direction to his subordinates and stayed in his tent drunk the day of the attack. Around 4 A.M. on July 30, the fuse was lit and… nothing happened. Lt. Jacob Douty and Sgt. Harry Reese volunteered to go find out what the problem was. They found where the fuse went out, patched it, and relit it. At 4:44 A.M., a tremendous explosion occurred and a crater 170 feet long, 60-80 feet wide, and 30 feet deep was created. 288 of the 18th and 22nd South Carolina were killed. A long 15 minutes later, Ledlie’s men moved into no man’s land. They were flayed by artillery and when they reached the crater they went in, thinking it was safer there. It wasn’t. Confederate Gen. William Mahone quickly organized a counterattack which caught the Yankees in the crater. As Mahone said, it was like “a turkey shoot”. The attack was a bloody failure, but Burnside decided to reinforce the failure by sending in the black units. They also entered the crater and their appearance enflamed the Rebels who began to chant “spare the white man, kill the n—–“. The South had an unofficial policy of no quarter for blacks and it was implemented here. After more killing, Burnside finally called the survivors back. 18% of the white soldiers were casualties and 31% of blacks. Ironically, the whole thing was probably in vain because the Confederates had reserve trenches beyond the crater and artillery covering the ground. There would have been no rush to Petersburg. In the battle, 1,491 Rebels were casualties (361 killed) and 3,798 Yankees were casualties (504 killed and 1,413 captured or missing). Burnside was made the scapegoat, but a congressional investigation a year later exonerated him and put most of the blame on Meade.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/union-forces-stopped-at-the-battle-of-the-crater
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater
https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/the-battle-of-the-crater.html
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